Cutting Slot For Diving Lip

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I am making my own diving lips for swimbaits out of lexan. I am cutting a slot in the bait carefully with a band saw and epoxying the lip in. I'd like to hear a better idea for this with more consistent results. Any suggestions on how to get an even slot/ cut every time?

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Here is a slick tip I learned from Gene (Lincoya)...Use the band saw to make your initial cut ( Like the guys said above)....This will be your pilot cut.Now using a dremel tool with either a 1/16th or 1/8th diamond bit(depends how thick your lexan is)follow your pilot cut.You get a perfect slot cut every time!...Nathan

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I learned to cut lip slots with a bandsaw after I'd already shaped my lure when I forgot to do it while the blank was still rectangular. Doh!!

Take your time, trust your eye, cut from both sides, and know that you can adjust the lip once it's in the slot, but the epoxy hasn't yet set. I used tooth picks to shim and adjust the lip until it looked right to me. A centerline on the lip on blue painter's tape, up past the part that fits into the slot, helped a lot.

Also knowing that, worse case scenario, I could always use the bandsaw to cut the lip out again if it was wrong gave me the confidence to take my time and not worry about it being not being reversible.

I actually dry fit it first, and got my toothpick adjustments where I wanted them, so setting the lip into the epoxy went much easier.

I used wooden toothpicks, but plastic would probably have worked, too.

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I try to cut my slots where there is very little play, if any, when the lip is installed. I want the lip to have just enough room to slide in easily and have enough room for good epoxy coverage. I also drill a couple of holes in the part of the lip that slides up inside the bait. This just gives a little extra bite for the epoxy. I'm a bit fanatical about being sure the band saw blade is perfectly square with the table. It takes two cuts the get the slot to the correct width for the lexan I'm using and I try to leave the slot a little tight and fit the lip by hand using a fingernail file to widen the slot. When doing the filing I only file the wood on the bottom of the slot. That way if the slot does get a bit loose, or out of square, I can do like Mark and shim it tight against the upper part of the slot which will still be square because no filing was done on it. Hope some of this helps.

Ben

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One way to cut slots after the lure is already shaped is to put a temporary piece of stiff wire into the back and belly, drilled exactly into the centerline, and sticking out an inch. Cut two spacer blocks exactly half the thickness of your bait, and use them as guide blocks. Lay the wires of the bait on the two blocks, and your bait will be exactly square to the bandsaw table, and to the blade, too.

It's harder to explain than it is to do, but it's much easier and better just not to forget to cut the slot while the bait is rectangular. Doh!!! Hahaha

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I use a bench grinder with a small circular saw blade on each side. The blades are angle grinder metal cutting TCT blades, a 4" blade gives a 1.5mm slot and a 5" blade a 2mm slot. adjustable height tables for each blade allow me to centre the radius of cut for the different thicknesses of timber.

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